Friday, May 2, 2014

Book Spotlight~ The Coach's Wife and a Giveaway

The Coach's Wife by Barbara Casey

Another deafening roar exploded from the
coliseum, and when it did Marla threw down her partially smoked cigarette and
ground it into the polished tile floor with the toe of her shoe. Quickly she reached
for another cigarette from the opened pack in her small red handbag. She lit
it, sucked the smoke into her mouth, held her breath, coughed, and then slowly
released it. Marla didn't smoke, but when she paced up and down the hallways of
basketball coliseums, puffing on cigarettes seemed appropriate. It gave her
something to do with her hands, and it helped keep her sane.

Marla Connors,
recently married to head basketball coach Neal Connors, travels with her
husband to Albuquerque, New
Mexico, where the Piedmont State University Coyote team is playing in
the NCAA Finals. Marla has not been accepted by the Coyotes, that loyal bunch
of fans who follows the university team, partly because she is almost twenty
years younger than Coach Connors and a divorcée, but also because the fans are
afraid she will distract her husband from his duties as head coach. They see
her as someone who married Coach Connors just for his money. Only Gale, the
older wife of assistant coach Stu Simmons, goes out of her way to be a friend
to Marla.

The Coyote team
is plagued with problems from the very beginning of the season, and when they
finally manage to reach the NCAA Finals, it's even worse. Their center is
caught using drugs, Athletics Director Charlie Morgan, who is also in Albuquerque for the games, makes a pass at Marla in
her hotel room, and Coach Connors comes down with the flu. No one believes that
State can win the big game.

With so much
happening, Marla can't shake the feeling that something evil is taking over her
life. She tries to convince herself that it is emotional anxiety left over from
the abuse she experienced during her first marriage to Dr. Martin Andrews and
that the stress from the tournament has brought it once again to the surface.
She soon learns, however, that the evil is real and it threatens not only
everything she loves, but her very life.

Illegal drugs,
illicit affairs, murder, and scandal that shakes the entire university system
are woven inextricably into Marla’s life until eventually she comes face to
face with her real tormentor. It is only then that she realizes the full depth
of her love for her husband--and his love for her.

Teaser Excerpt:

Everything you can imagine
is real.

Pablo Picasso

Prologue

Marla Connors wrapped her
full-length, black mink coat tightly around her and sat back in the rich
brocade chair--one of a matching pair--that faced the ivory damask sofa.She had chosen this particular chair in the
lobby because it allowed her full view of the front entrance of the hotel as
well as the bank of brass-framed elevators located off to the right.She watched a group of noisy Wolfpack
supporters get off one of the elevators, all of them wearing red and white and
carrying an assortment of pompoms, banners, and other displays of school spirit
to wave during the basketball game.Several other people, also Wolfpack fans who had waited to see if State
would make it to the NCAA semifinals, were trying to check in at the hotel
desk.

Even though Marla could
easily see anyone coming into or leaving the lobby of the hotel through the
massive glass doors, as well as anyone using the elevators, she for the most
part was hidden from view by a tall palm and several smaller potted plants
placed around the seating area.And even
if someone did notice her sitting there, no one would recognize her--not with
the wig.The shoulder-length blond hair
and heavy makeup, as well as the coat, made her look older than her
thirty-three years.

Another group of loud fans
clamored out of an elevator.Charlie
Morgan, the new athletics director, and his assistant, Ray Knox, were among
them as well as Stuart Simmons, one of the assistant coaches.The Piedmont State University Wolfpack team
was scheduled for the first game of the semifinals in the NCAA National
Championship basketball playoffs, and many of the fans had already started
drinking.Their boisterous and obnoxious
behavior was only a mild indication of what they would be like during and after
the game.

He entered through the glass
doors and stood for a moment in the sunlight that was scattered on the thick
maroon carpet.Tall, muscular, erect,
his sixty-year-old body looked like a poster ad expounding the benefits of
keeping in shape.He had probably been
doing a pre-game interview outside for one of the television networks.His thick graying hair was slightly
wind-blown giving him a boyish look, and he still had on the sweats he had worn
to practice that morning.Marla crossed
her legs and when she did the coat opened slightly, exposing her bare leg and
thigh.She smoothed the blond hair with
her hand and licked her lips.Other than
that, she made no movement.He would see
her.He always did.

About the Author

Originally
from Carrollton, Illinois, author/agent Barbara Casey attended the University of North Carolina, N.C. State University, and N.C. Wesleyan College where she received a BA degree, summa cum laude,
with a double major in English and history.In 1978 she left her position as Director of Public Relations and Vice
President of Development at North Carolina Wesleyan College to write full time and develop her own manuscript
evaluation and editorial service.In
1995 she established the Barbara Casey Agency and since that time has represented authors from the
United
States,
Great
Britain,
and Japan.

Ms.
Casey's two middle-grade/young adult novels, Leilani Zan and Grandma Jock and
Christabelle (James C. Winston Publishing Co., Trade Division) were both
nominated for awards of excellence by the SCBWI Golden Kite Award, the National
Association of University Women Literary Award and the Sir Walter Raleigh
Literary Award.Shyla's Initiative
(Crossquarter Publishing Group), a contemporary adult novel (occult
romance/mystery), received the Independent Publisher Book Award and also an
award of special literary recognition by the Palm Beach County Cultural
Council.The House of Kane (ArcheBooks
Publishing) was considered for a Pulitzer nomination.Another contemporary novel for adults, Just
Like Family, received “Special Recognition from the 7-Eleven Corporation.”Most recently, her young adult novel, The
Cadence of Gypsies, was reviewed by the Smithsonian for its List of Most
Notable Books. The Gospel According to Prissy, a novel for adults, has received
excellent reviews and received an IPPY Award for Best

Regional
Fiction.Warner Brothers Studio has also
expressed interest. Newly released in paperback, The Coach's Wife (ArcheBooks
Publishing), also a novel for adults (contemporary/mystery), was semi-finalist
for the Dana Award for Outstanding Novel and listed on the Publisher’s Best
Seller List.

Her
award-winning articles, short stories, and poetry for adults have appeared in
both national and international publications including the North Carolina
Christian Advocate Magazine, The New East Magazine, the Raleigh (N.C.) News and
Observer, the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Sunday Telegram, Dog Fancy, ByLine, The
Christian Record, Skirt! Magazine, and True Story.A thirty-minute television special which Ms.
Casey wrote and coordinated was broadcast on WRAL, Channel 5, in Raleigh, North Carolina.She also
received special recognition for her editorial work on the English translations
of Albanian children’s stories.

Ms.
Casey's award-winning science fiction short stories for adults are featured in
The Cosmic Unicorn and CrossTime science fiction anthologies.Ms. Casey's essays and other works appear in
The Chrysalis Reader, the international literary journal of the Swedenborg
Foundation, 221 One-Minute Monologues from Literature (Smith and Kraus
Publishers), and A Cup of Comfort (Adams Media Corporation).

Ms.
Casey is a former director of BookFest of the Palm Beaches, Florida, where she served as guest author and panelist.She has served as judge for the Pathfinder
Literary Awards in Palm
Beach and Martin Counties, Florida, and was the Florida Regional Advisor for the
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators from 1991 through
2003.She is a frequent guest lecturer
at universities and writers’ conferences around the country including the SCBWI
Regional Conference, the Harriett Austin Writers Conference in Athens, SIBA (Southeastern Independent Book Sellers
Association), Florida Writers Association, and the University of Auburn, Montgomery.She makes
her home on the top of a mountain near Trion, Georgia, with her husband and Benton, a hound-mix who
adopted her.

www.barbaracaseyagency.com

www.amazon.com

www.barnesandnoble.com

www.archebooks.com

GIVEAWAY~

Casey will be awarding a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.